1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing a front face of an automobile vehicle, and to such a front face.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
A front face or front chassi panel is conventionally mounted at the front of the engine compartment of an automobile vehicle, between the side members or the arms of the chassis, and generally supports a radiator and a system for locking the hood of the vehicle in closed position.
For many years, the front faces were made of metal, but the use of metal proved to limit the shapes that could be used. Automobile vehicle front faces were then made of plastics, in particular polyamide resin, possibly reinforced with reinforcing fibers. These plastic front faces have the noteworthy drawback of being considerably deformed in the event of shock, to such an extent that the lock that they support may be disconnected from the corresponding part of the hood.
European Patent Application 0 370 342 discloses producing an element of light construction, in particular for an automobile vehicle, which is composed of a base body in the form of a shell and of reinforcing ribs made of injected plastics material. This element is produced by overmoulding the base body with a glass-fiber reinforced polyamide resin, which leads to a relatively high cost due to the price of the raw material used. In addition, overmoulding necessarily involves the base body being shaped with high precision in order not to interfere with the mould when the latter is closed. In effect, dimensional variations of the base body might result in the mould being jammed, and even in the matrix or punch being damaged. In addition, the points of injection of the plastics material in the mould around the base body must be positioned with precision, and the flow of the plastics material is considerably disturbed in the event of an obstacle being positioned in front of these points of injection. Finally, charging and discharging of the mould are relatively long operations due to the necessarily precise positioning of the base body before the mould is closed.
European Patent Application 0 658 470 discloses making a support frame for an automobile vehicle frontage in which a framework may be fixed in grooves, recesses or housings in an overall plane frontal panel. The fixing of the framework in the panel does not allow it to rigidify this panel efficiently.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a process of manufacture and an automobile vehicle front face which are particularly economical, without risk of interference of the parts with a mould or a manipulating robot, while the shock resistance of the part obtained is quite satisfactory.